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usual style of indigenous houses. He confirmed that those were pig farms and small factories - making beancurd, vehicle body, etc. run by outsiders. A few years ago the land of the whole village was sold to a developer for construction of luxury residences, but the developer had not yet taken possession of the land. Few villagers remained; many, in all likelihood, had moved out to live in the city. He also told me the village had a Bak Dai temple, which I did not see. Formerly, they used to select the ritual representatives for their own jiu celebrations at this temple. They later joined Shek O and Tai Long Wan because there were not enough people to take up the work required by a separate celebration.
III. Participants
As in the case of the jiu celebrations in the New Territories, participants at the jiu paid a subscription and had their names included in a list put up in a major rite on the main day. They also participated by organizing the festival and by taking part in worship, while a minority took leading roles or represented the celebrating population in the rites. Unlike most jiu festivals in the New Territories, these participants included later settlers as well as indigenous residents.
I noticed that there were about 550 entries in the contribution list posted on one side of the entrance to the main ritual area. Members of the same family were grouped together, as in the New Territories, in the list of participants. There were altogether about 220 families, many of them covering three generations.
In the case of Shek O, participation and subscription were not required of all residents, indigenous or otherwise. Moreover, the amount of subscription was left to each individual participant. Three men were selected as the yn-sau ritual representatives by casting bui divination blocks at the Tin Hau temple. The chosen three were called the yn-sau and his two "deputies". All the other participants, even if they were foreigners, were indiscriminately called seun-si (believers), which title was reserved for indigenous residents at the New Territories celebrations. After the ritual representatives were chosen, Choi Paak Lai, a well-known date-chooser, was consulted for the dates and times for the major